Chapter 2

The power of positive thinking

Positive thinking is a mental and emotional attitude that focuses on the bright side of life and expects positive results.

A positive person anticipates happiness, health and success, and believes he or she can overcome any obstacle and difficulty.

Positive thinking is not accepted by everyone. Some, consider it as nonsense, and scoff at people who follow it, but there is a growing number of people, who accept positive thinking as a fact, and believe in its effectiveness.

It seems that this subject is gaining popularity, as evidenced by the many books, lectures and courses about it.

To use it in your life, you need more than just to be aware of its existence. You need to adopt the attitude of positive thinking in everything you do.

How Positive Thinking Works

The following story illustrates how this power works:

Allan applied for a new job, but he didn't believe he will get it, since his self-esteem was low, and he considered himself as a failure and unworthy of success.

He had a negative attitude toward himself, and therefore, believed that the other applicants were better and more qualified than him.

Allan's mind was occupied with negative thoughts and fears concerning the job, for the whole week preceding the job interview. He actually, anticipated failure.

On the day of the interview, he got up late, and to his horror he discovered that the shirt he planned to wear was dirty, and the other one needed ironing. As it was already too late, he went out wearing a wrinkled shirt and without eating breakfast.

During the interview, he was tense, negative, hungry and worried about his shirt. All this, distracted his mind and made it difficult for him to focus on the interview. His overall behavior made a bad impression, and consequently, he materialized his fear and did not get the job.

Jim applied for the same job too, but approached the matter in a different way. He was sure that he was going to get the job. During the week preceding the interview, he often visualized himself making a good impression and getting the job.

In the evening before the interview, he prepared the clothes he was going to wear, and went to sleep a little earlier. On day of the interview, he woke up earlier than usual, and had ample time to eat breakfast, and then to arrive to the interview before the scheduled time.

Jim made a good impression and got the job.

What do we learn from these two stories? Was there any magic used? No, everything happened in a natural way.

Positive Thinking Is a Way of Life

With a positive attitude we experience pleasant and happy feelings. This brings brightness to the eyes, more energy, and happiness. Our whole being broadcasts good will, happiness and success. Even our health is affected in a beneficial way. We walk tall, our voice is more powerful, and our body language shows the way we feel.

Positive and negative thinking are contagious.

We affect, and are affected by the people we meet, in one way or another. This happens instinctively and on a subconscious level, through words, thoughts and feelings, and through body language.

Is it any wonder that we want to be around positive people, and prefer to avoid negative ones?

People are more disposed to help us, if we are positive, and they dislike and avoid anyone broadcasting negativity.

Negative thoughts, words and attitude, create negative and unhappy feelings, moods and behavior. When the mind is negative, poisons are released into the blood, which cause more unhappiness and negativity. This is the way to failure, frustration and disappointment.

Positive Thinking Practical Instructions

In order to turn the mind toward the positive, some inner work is required, since attitude and thoughts do not change overnight.

1. Read about this subject, think about its benefits, and persuade yourself to try it. The power of your thoughts is a mighty power that is always shaping your life. This shaping is usually done subconsciously, but it is possible to make the process a conscious one. Even if the idea seems strange, give it a try. You have nothing to lose, but only to gain.
2. Ignore what other people say or think about you, if they discover that you are changing the way you think.
3. Use your imagination to visualize only favorable and beneficial situations.
4. Use positive words in your inner dialogues, or when talking with others.
5. Smile a little more, as this helps to think positively.
6. Once a negative thought enters your mind, you have to be aware of it, and endeavor to replace it with a constructive one. If the negative thought returns, replace it again with a positive one. It is as if there are two pictures in front of you, and you have to choose to look at one of them, and disregard the other. Persistence will eventually teach your mind to think positively, and to ignore negative thoughts.
7. In case you experience inner resistance and difficulties when replacing negative thoughts with positive ones, do not give up, but keep looking only at the beneficial, good and happy thoughts in your mind.
8. It doesn't matter what your circumstances are at the present moment. Think positively, expect only favorable results and situations, and circumstances will change accordingly. If you persevere, you will transform the way your mind thinks. It might take some time for the changes to take place, but eventually they will.
9. Another useful technique is the repetition of affirmations. This technique is similar to creative visualization, and can be used together with it.

The Magic of Positive Thinking

The Power of the Subconscious Mind

The magic of positive thinking is real. Adopting behaviors like positive self-talk and daily positive affirmations can change the brain's structure and ultimately influence the subconscious mind.

So how does the power of positive thinking work its magic in your mind? Together, the conscious and subconscious minds direct the show that is your life. So altering their function will lead to new and different ways of being. Let's begin with a few definitions:

The Subconscious Mind: It's worth noting that the "subconscious mind" I'm speaking of, is what Freud called the "unconscious mind". There is no subconscious mind in psychoanalysis. It is more of a new age, self-development term.

So when referring to the subconscious mind, I'm talking about that part of the mind that stores feelings, perceptions, complexes, beliefs and desires that are all outside of our conscious awareness yet have a powerful influence over the actions and behaviors we take in every moment.

The unconscious mind is associated with the dreaming, reflecting, meditating and sleeping state. It is intuitive, easily making associations and connections between thoughts, ideas and feelings. It does your perceiving and feeling.

The Conscious Mind: The conscious mind is the antithesis of the subconscious mind. It does all of your intellectual thinking.

It's the part of your mind responsible for your self-talk, the endless stream of mind chatter that can on occasion almost send you crazy. The conscious mind likes logical order and sequential information. It likes things to make sense, to have reason. At any one time, the conscious mind can manage awareness of about seven or eight bits of information.

The Magic of Positive Thinking: The Power of Your Subconscious Mind

While we like to think we have conscious control over what we attract, what we do in life, and how we behave, the truth is, the subconscious has most of the control. So when you aren't attracting what you want in life, it's an indication that unconsciously you have low expectations for yourself. Even if on a conscious level you make every effort to achieve something, unless your unconscious carries synergistic expectations, then it will be difficult to achieve.

The Magic of Positive Thinking: Programming the Subconscious Mind

Information is received by the subconscious mind from the conscious mind. Your conscious mind perceives the world through your senses. It then attaches a judgment to these thoughts that creates a feeling. The feeling is then lodged into your unconscious mind as a belief.

Since all of your unconscious beliefs were first conscious thoughts, it stands to reason that you can change or reprogram your subconscious mind by actively adopting new thinking. This is where the magic of positive thinking comes into play!

Using the Magic of Positive Thinking to Impact Your Life

 Follow these steps to help with unleashing your mind's power using the power of your thoughts:

1. Become aware of your negative programming and beliefs. For example, perhaps growing up you were teased (as so many kids are) about a facial feature or your sports ability. And now, no matter what you do, you cannot see yourself as anything but ugly or anything but a klutz. In each of these cases, the negative beliefs you want to reprogram are "I am ugly" and "I am a klutz".
2. Activate the power of positive thinking: start feeding your conscious mind with new beliefs. At this stage, it's not important that you agree with your new belief, what's important is that it's motivating to you and you'd like to believe it to be true. So in each case, the new beliefs you would want to instill in yourself are "I am truly beautiful, inside and out" and "I am good at sports/I am comfortable in my body".
3. Continue feeding your mind stimulus that aligns with these statements. Meditation (especially binaural brain beat meditations and hypnosis is like super vitamins at this.) They help you achieve a relaxed state where it’s much easier to accept and integrate positive self-talk. You can also incorporate positive daily affirmations and visualization exercises to help make change more rapid. Overtime, as you keep feeding yourself new positive stimulus the negative thoughts you've become so used to hearing will become quieter. Through repeated exposure to your new beliefs, you will start to change your perception of yourself in these areas. At first you'll notice the change in small things. Perhaps you'll decide to take up a sport or if you're belief was that you are ugly, perhaps you'll notice that you suddenly feel more sexy and confident and you might start to dress differently to reflect this.

The main point to remember is that you can practice the magic of positive thinking in your life by controlling what thoughts you focus on. It's not an over claim to say that positive thinking is one of the best self-help solutions available. It can do wonders for your life. 

Positive Thinking Activities

Three Ways to Realize the Power of Your Thoughts

These positive thinking activities are a great way to prove to yourself the power of your thoughts. You will quickly see that these exercises complement each other. The more of them you do, the more positive you can expect to be.

Some of these positive thinking activities are designed to challenge your habitual thought processes and help you become more aware of how your thinking influences your behavior. Others are more about giving you daily exposure to inspiration so your cup of positivity is always full.     

Positive Thinking Activities - #1: The Principle of Be-Do-Have

Most of us follow an illogical path to fulfillment. We spend our lives chasing external things to make us happy. We imagine that if we could just have more time, money or love, for example, then we'd finally be able to do the things we want to do, like cook more, relax more, and work in a profession we enjoy or even go back to school. In our mind's eye, we think about how we'll feel doing these activities and we tell ourselves that this is when we'll finally be who we want to be - whether that's happy, loving, successful or peaceful. The truth is, "havingness" doesn't lead to "beingness." It's the other way around! We must be who we want to be before we can have the material manifestations that accompany that state.

An Example: Let's take the case of someone who is lonely and wants to find their soul mate. In their mind, they may be saying "if I could meet the person of my dreams (have), I would then dress sexy and go out more (do) because I'd be so happy and fulfilled (be). The truth is (as many of us have experienced), it's not until you decide you're happy in your current state (be) and start dressing sexy, even if it's just for yourself (do) that you finally, as if my magic land the love of your life (have.)

Exercise: Go straight to being who you want to be. Do this by first contemplating what you would be like if you had what you so badly desire. Then be it now! Fake it till you make it. This is the process of creation and will help you manifest your desires much more quickly.

Positive Thinking Activities - #2: Facts versus Stories

Much of human suffering comes down to our habits of misinterpretation. We make many uninformed judgments in life. And unfortunately, these judgments are usually disempowering.

In this exercise, take an event from the past or the present that is troubling you. Write down all of your thoughts about the event. What happened, what each actor did, why they did what they did. Now put all the thoughts that are facts into one box and all the thoughts that are just your interpretation or your POV in another box.

What you have now is the facts and the story separated. You should see from this exercise just how few the facts are, and how much of life we invent through story.

The lesson here is simple: be careful what story you invent to surround the facts in life. Make your stories empowering not disempowering and you'll experience the power of positive thinking for yourself.

Positive Thinking Activities - #3: Watch Inspiring Movies

 I'm constantly surprised how easy it is to form negative habits. It's very easy to get stuck on repeat! And when you're stuck, the joy of daily life seems to disappear.

That is why I give myself big daily doses of spiritually uplifting material to stay inspired. I really recommend developing daily practices that keep you in motion, heading in the direction of your dreams. So if you desire to be positive and peaceful, make sure this is reflected in how you spend your time. For example, how do you spend your leisure time now? It's wise to put time aside for inspiration and make it part of your life. You could, for example, subscribe to the Spiritual Cinema Circle to receive regular access to positive thinking films.

Learning the Steps of Positive Thinking

How to Think Positive

These steps of positive thinking outlined below are the tools I used to help heal my mind during a very dark period. When I started using them, I didn't really believe they'd work. But when you're desperate like I was, you'll try anything! The good news is, the power of positive thinking is real and these steps work!

Experience has taught me that learning how to think positive and practicing positive self-talk are critical if you want to access the power of the subconscious mind to change your negative programming.

Steps of Positive Thinking, Step 1: Observe Your Dominant Negative Thoughts

Society puts such a premium on being happy and positive that we become afraid of listening to our negative thoughts and feeling our negative feelings. But running away from what you're truly thinking and feeling isn't the pathway to salvation.

Just stop, take some deep breaths and observe what you're thinking and face your emotions. Rather than being threatened by these thoughts, be curious. Use them as guideposts. Where are they coming from? Are they the truth or have you made them up? Are they fears of the future or regrets of the past? Getting familiar with what goes on inside your mind is a critical step to self-acceptance and peace.

Tip: Think of your negative emotions as clues that you're engaging in negative self-talk  in some areas of life. Taking some time every day to meditate on your mind will help you find this negative conversation and change it. Meditation has many benefits. Practice it overtime and you will transform your brain's structure and function and literally acquire a new mind! I have found binaural meditation helped me stick to meditating even when it seemed impossible. Beginning a practice can seem difficult. Just stick with it and you'll find it gets easier over time.

Steps Of Positive Thinking, Step 2: Get Real About The Power Of Your Thoughts

The thoughts you are having are what have made your life the way it is. Thinking about your own life, in what aspects is it good? You will no doubt find that in the areas where life is good, you have positive thoughts and beliefs. What are the thoughts you're having in relation to negative areas in your life? Can you see that your thinking here perpetuates these negative events?

You may be thinking to yourself that it's the other way around in your life: that in fact, it's the events in your life that are causing you to think negatively. Consider that it is your thinking that's flawed here. It is a common misconception to think that your circumstances cause your unhappiness. Unfortunately, most people fall victim to this misconception which leaves them disempowered to make meaningful changes in their thinking and behavior.

The truth is, most of your life isn't something that happens outside of your control. Your thoughts create your experience which means the way your life occurs depends on what is happening inside you. Hence the saying "happiness is an inside job.".

Steps Of Positive Thinking, Step 3: Decide Who You Want To Be

One of my favorite positive thinking quotes is an astute observation by Albert Einstein:

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving."

Having dreams and goals are easy ways to ensure you keep moving in life. When you have nothing to aim for, you often resist change. And resistance to change manifests as negative self talk, a focus on past hurts and a fear of how the future will unfold.

Tip: To help break your negative thinking habit, create a personal development plan that will inspire you to become all that you are capable of being. Now observe how you feel when you think about achieving your goals and dreams? If you fill your mind with thoughts of how to achieve your goals, you won't have room for negative thinking in your life.

Steps of Positive Thinking, Step 4: Create Positive Thinking Support Structures

Develop a set of empowering daily positive affirmations and practice positive visualization to keep you motivated and focused on achieving your dreams and goals. Surround yourself with inspiring imagery that inspires, like vision boards and positive pictures. 

Tip: When negative thinking tries to sabotage your efforts to change, just relax, breathe and acknowledge you are facing resistance. A great way I find to disempower negative emotions is to view them as nothing more than bad weather - they don't have to be any more significant than heavy clouds in the sky. And just like clouds, negative emotions pass. Observe them rather than becoming them.

Steps of Positive Thinking, Step 5: Repeat Repeat Repeat

Immerse yourself in the fulfillment of your goals and dreams. Rely on your support structures every single day to strengthen your positivity and enable you to keep on persisting.

Tip: Overtime, when you are working towards the fulfillment of dreams and goals, new challenges arise. As these times, you may become vulnerable to negative thinking again. This is when it's even more critical than ever to rely on your positive thinking support structures.

If you follow these steps of positive thinking diligently there is no chance that you won't eventually know the power of positive thinking in your own life. Overtime, by repeating positive self-talk and positive actions that align with your goals and dreams you will develop new habits. This is how your thinking and behaving can be used to harness the power of the subconscious mind.

The Effects of Positive Thinking

Positive Self Talk

There is plenty of research into the effects of positive thinking. Some studies have found the power of positive thinking to be a hoax, others conclude its power is very real and that practicing it can lead to one or many of the following benefits:

Improved Health and Wellbeing

Dr. Richard J. Davidson, Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin, found that the effects of positive thinking extend to the cells in your body. His research showed optimists have higher levels of disease-fighting cell activity with less of a decline under stress. Optimists also have lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Overtime, these biological consequences may lead to:

• A longer life
• Increased psychological well being
• Increased levels of productivity

Improved Chances Of Success

Positive thinking can also lead to an increased likelihood of success. If you're able to reframe failures and see them merely as feedback and temporary setbacks, chances are you will eventually get to where you want to go.

Science concurs on positive thinking power in relation to success. Psychologist Suzanne Segerstrom, of the University of Kentucky, who has made a career of studying the psychology of optimism has this to say about its effect on your life:

"When optimists encounter a setback or slowed progress, they are less likely than pessimists to just give up. They might keep trying or even redouble their efforts... In the short term, when you run into trouble, it is easier on your body to give up than to keep trying. However, giving up is not a good answer if you ever want to achieve your goals, so it's probably healthier in the long run to pay the short-term cost associated with staying engaged with your goals."

Greater Levels of Fulfillment

In her book The How of Happiness, Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology at the University of California-Riverside, says practicing various positive thinking activities will improve your overall mood and level of fulfillment. These activities include cultivating gratitude and savoring everyday positive moments and experiences (like your morning coffee or a conversation with a good friend.) Initially, getting into the practice of repeating these actions to make them behaviors takes work. But as they become habitual, they require less and less conscious effort but lead to greater sustained happiness.

Better Interactions with Others

Who would you rather get to know, a pessimist or an optimist? People who practice positive self-talk tend to be future-focused (not stuck in the past), they are more likely to take risks and are less deterred by fail or poor outcomes. Negative thinkers, on the other hand, are focused on avoiding negative outcomes. They continuously recreate the past in their minds as a protective measure and a justification to avoid risk-taking. They are typically more upset and dejected by failure. They often display many low self-esteem signs and see the world as an unfriendly place.

The Power Of Positive Thinking In Your Life

The jury may be out on the effects of positive thinking... but I say the magic of positive thinking is as real as you decide to make it. When you practice positive thinking, you cultivate positive emotions which has many good effects: improved health and well-being, better relationships and higher levels of fulfillment in life.

Positive Attitude in the Workplace

5 Qualities to Embody For Success

To cultivate a positive attitude in the workplace first requires a good look at what attitude is. In another article, I discussed at length the definition of attitude and how achieving success through attitude is the easiest way to climb your career ladder.

By now you're hopefully sold on the value of having a positive attitude. But what exactly does that mean in practice? It means getting into the habit of thinking and behaving in certain ways.

Below you will find five habits of thinking and behaving you need to practice in order to maximize your chances of achieving success through attitude.

5 Steps to a Positive Attitude in the Workplace

1. Find out how you're contributing to problems in your workplace. Have you ever noticed how people who are the problem never recognize they are? We all have blind spots that inhibit our growth. People who are the most successful have learned the importance of identifying where they're shunning responsibility. Look at areas in your work life where you're always blaming or complaining. What are you failing to be responsible for here?
2. Stop trying to change your workmates. Focus only on changing your own feelings, thoughts and actions in order to change your attitude. In truth, most people don't invest much time developing self-awareness so they remain unconscious of their behavior and their impact on the people around them. You simply cannot change these people. Well, you can. But the only proven way to see amazing changes in other people is to first change yourself. To start, put more emphasis on practicing the power of positive thinking in your workday.
3. Practice being grateful for your job and your workplace. It is said that the healthiest of all human emotions is gratitude. Rather than looking for what's wrong at work, start to focus on what's right. Zig Ziglar calls this shifting from being a fault finder to a good finder. A great way to cultivate a positive attitude in the workplace is to keep a daily list of 5-10 things you're grateful for at work. You'll be surprised how quickly this simple positive self talk exercise will shift your perspective of work.
4. Look for the opportunity. In every bad situation the Law of Polarity dictates there is also good. Napoleon Hill made a compelling observation about the Law of Polarity in his book Think And Grow Rich. He said "Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat." Whenever you perceive that something bad is happening or has happened, get into the habit of practicing positive self talk by switching your focus to see the hidden opportunity. There is always one there.
5. Make a conscious effort to think before you act. If you have an attitude that needs shifting, it requires shifting thoughts, feelings and actions that have become habit. This requires greater mindfulness in each and every minute. Learn to practice more control in how you respond to work challenges minute-by-minute. This can be as simple as focusing on positive self-talk and filtering out negative messages.

The Power of Positive Thinking and Positive Attitude in the Workplace

We all want to feel good and enjoy our careers. But many of us have lost our way and no longer know how to find the joy in the everyday mundane tasks our jobs require. By cultivating a positive attitude in the workplace, you will slowly shift the energy and consciousness of the people around you. Just like some people can really bring you down, your attitude and behavior can elevate other people to great heights and new possibilities.

By focusing on improving your attitude in the workplace, you will assume a position of leadership as you'll quickly become an influential source of strength and influence for those around you. As James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner said in their book, The Leadership Challenge: How to Keep Getting Extraordinary Things Done in Organizations:

"What we've discovered, and rediscovered, is that leadership isn't the private reserve of a few charismatic men and women. It's a process ordinary people use when they're bringing forth the best from themselves and others. Liberate the leader in everyone, and extraordinary things happen."

TYPES OF POSITIVE THINKING

1. PICTURE THINKING/VISUAL THINKING

Visual thinking, also called visual/spatial learning or pictu